A Lost Art.

Most of the problems I have with the school system these days stems from the strict curriculum teachers are forced to follow for the various standardized tests students must take throughout their years. It isn’t that I have a problem with the idea of a curriculum. It does make it easier having a specific set of standards to follow so you know what to teach your students and are aware of what they should know both by the time they come into your classroom and by the time the school year concludes. However, having to stick so closely to the standards provides little room for teachers to focus on other topics that are important, but not regarded as such because they do not fall under the core four subjects that are tested: reading, math, history, and science. A major topic that is vital to learning but being taught less and less in schools is writing.

That may come as a surprise to some people, because writing seems so closely related to reading (which is tested). But writing itself is not tested, and thus is often not taught. Writing is a subject that is imperative across all subject areas, but teachers either cannot make it fit into their lessons, or choose to not fit it in because it is not needed according to the creators of the oh so wonderful state tests.

Being an English major and future English teacher does make me a little biased, but I cannot fathom how anyone could see writing as not important. Writing builds comprehension skills in all subject areas. If a student can put what they have learned into their own words, that shows they are grasping the content. That goes for writing about the theme of a story, stating the importance of the Industrial Revolution, creating a hypothesis, or explaining how they know triangle A has an obtuse angle. Writing is also a way for students to express themselves, both academically and emotionally, when they may be too shy to speak out loud or to someone. Yet more and more students are writing less and less.

I am doing field experience in a 7^th grade classroom, and the teacher I am working with let me take home student writing from two class periods so I could read their responses to a book of their choice that they have been reading, and to get a feel for what the student are like. Some writing was good. Very good. But most writing was heartbreakingly bad. Their poor punctuation and grammar was what I was least worried about. I was just interested in their reactions to what they had been reading. Sadly, these students cannot express themselves through the written word. They mostly just summarized what they read…kind of. Granted some of the students tried really hard to express themselves, but overall the skills were just not there. I imagine it is just as frustrating for the students as it is for the teacher. But how can they build their skills if most teachers they have do not require them to work on their writing? It’s simple: they can’t.

In districts, like the one I am working in, where writing is not emphasized, I am not at all surprised that many students are not meeting state standards in reading, science, math, or history at any level.